


The Thing About Uchiha

by SpaceNugget11



Category: Naruto
Genre: Action/Adventure, Adventure & Romance, Comedy, Coming of Age, Drama & Romance, Eventual Romance, F/M, Gen, Humor, Other, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-19
Updated: 2020-06-07
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:14:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 15,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24277219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpaceNugget11/pseuds/SpaceNugget11
Summary: 19-year-old Sasuke's biggest problem is figuring out how to tell the girl that he likes her. Oh, and he might need to save the world. Again. For the record, he thought saving the it the first two times was a piece of cake compared to this whole romance business…in which our favorite duo sets off in search of weapons of mass destruction and maybe their happy ending.
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Sasuke
Comments: 8
Kudos: 56





	1. A Few Problems to Start Things Off

The room was still dark when Kakashi opened an eye. Something had woken him, and now that something was in his house silently waiting. It was an ambush of the worst kind: business. The red numbers on the digital clock at his nightstand announced the time to be 4:12 AM. He groaned and threw an arm over his eyes; he had just gone to bed two hours ago.

"Really? You couldn't wait?" He asked out loud.

Kakashi took the silence to be a "no." He pulled his mask over his face, and struggled out of bed, wincing as the pads of his bare feet pressed against the cold floor of his apartment. It had been the first day of spring yesterday, but winter refused to leave. 

"I know you've been gone for a while, Sasuke, but breaking into the Hokage's sleeping quarters is still illegal—I think" Kakashi rubbed the crud from his eyes. "Can't believe those ANBU kids just let you waltz in," he grumbled unhappily.

"You should consider new security detail, or not have them take up space on your roof." The voice came from somewhere across the room.

Kakashi wondered why his old student couldn't just knock on his front door like everyone else. Then again, Sasauke had always been one for the theatrics. He and Naruto were a lot alike in that way, though the Uchiha would probably stab out his own eye before admitting to such a thing.

"It's protocol." Kakashi's joints popped and creaked as he stood—age was not being kind to his body. "Ever consider joining the ANBU?"

"I have better things to do with my time."

"You're right. Being on ANBU sucks. Don't do it."

Kakashi was making his way towards the general direction of light switch, when something fell loudly against the ground. It sounded heavy— sort of like a body.

"Sasuke?" He ventured, only to be answered by a sickening silence.

He made for the lights a little faster and hit the switch, squinting against the sudden flood of brightness. Through his cracked lids he spied his old student crumpled on the floor. He hissed out a low curse before sprinting to Sasuke's side.

"Sasuke," Kakshi tried again, but the Uchiha didn't answer. Kakashi carefully rolled him onto his back and his brows furrowed at the gash across the front of Sasuke's poncho, flagging the dark blood-stains around it; that was never a good sign. Taking a kunai from Sasuke's holster, Kakashi cut open the cloth to get a better look, and his frown deepened upon seeing the bandaged wound soaked through with fresh blood.

Sasuke stirred, grinding his teeth against the pain.

"How bad is it?" Kakashi asked.

"Not great," Sasuke huffed and held out a scroll. He let his eyes fall shut after Kakashi took it. "Couldn't stop the bleeding. Poison on the blade, probably," he mumbled, sucking his teeth in annoyance.

"Not great" from Sasuke probably meant very, very bad.

"Tomoe! Azuki!" Kakashi barked loudly. Two masked ANBU appeared in the room. Finally.

"Hokage-sama, need I remind you, using our names is a security—"

"Get Haruno Sakura here, now," Kakashi ordered. "She's working this shift at the hospital. Tell her it's an emergency."

Azuki, the one who had spoken lifted off his mask. "Is that Uchiha Sasuke? Wait, what's going on?"

Kakashi gave the youth a dangerous look. Before he could give him a verbal dressing down, Tomoe, the other operative, smacked Azuki upside the head. "Shut up idiot and just do as you're told," she snapped and gave Kakashi a sharp nod before grabbing her partner by the back of his collar and disappearing.

Kakashi's shoulders rose and fell in a tired sigh. Peacetime, it seemed, had dulled the blade, though he still wasn't sure whether that was a good thing or a bad thing. He refocused his attention to the crisis at hand, pulling away part of Sasuke's bandages to gauge the situation's severity. The puckered wound looked deep, and even he, with his rudimental first-aid training, could recognize a bad infection when he saw one. An extra line of worry appeared on Kakashi's forehead— no matter how vehemently his detractors criticized him, Uchiha Sasuke was undeniably one of the most powerful Shinobi Konoha had produced in recent history. Only a monster would be able to land a scratch like that on the Uchiha, and from Kakashi's experience, monsters were rarely ever friendly; most of them wanted to either subjugate all of mankind or destroy the world or both.

He eyed the scroll in his hands, caught between curiosity and apprehension. When Kakashi had become the Sixth Hokage, there was a tacit understanding that he was just keeping the seat warm, and that was fine by him. Honestly, Kakashi would have been perfectly happy idling the days away reading _Icha Icha_ behind the Hokage's desk, waiting for his blonde protegee to get big enough to fit into the robe and that silly peaked hat. After two great ninja wars and the death of almost everyone he held dear, he was ready to kick his feet up and let the whippersnappers have a run at it.

Yet, here was, Lord Hokage and probably standing at the cusp of another global disaster.

He heaved a tired sigh and opened the scroll. "Duty calls, I guess."

.

.

.

When Sasuke opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was the ceiling. A machine beeped steadily in the background. He blinked once and raised his arm, noting all the wires and tubes running out of it before letting it flop back down.

' _Hospital,'_ he concluded.

His head lolled to one side. Through the bars of the hospital bed, he caught sight of Naruto and Kakashi. Naruto was turned away from him, but even doped up on a massive amount of painkillers, Sasuke could recognize the back of that stupid head anywhere. Kakashi glanced over at him. Sasuke wanted to ask about the scroll, but the breathing mask covering his face was making it hard. He reached up to pull the bothersome thing off, when someone gently took his hand away.

Something cool pressed against his forehead—a hand—and Sasuke felt his whole body slacken against the mattress beneath him. He looked up to see Sakura. Strands of hair had fallen out of her little ponytail, falling messily around her face. Sasuke thought she looked tired despite her smile. Naruto's and Kakashi's faces appeared behind her. Naruto laughed and said something, but Sasuke didn't catch it. Probably something dumb.

He closed his eyes, letting the crushing weight of drugs and exhaustion pressed him back into sleep.

.

.

.

Ino had been raving about Iccho all month. It was Konoha's hot new restaurant and all the trendy young villagers frequented the spot, meaning Sakura, who usually ate whatever the hospital cafeteria served, had never been. Located above a pottery workshop in the Arts District—a new name for an old area—the restaurant had an impractical space to seating ratio, with way too little tables for the massive space and a line out the door to boast for it. Apparently, the owner was one of those young, renegade chefs who had eschewed tradition for innovation. Sakura didn't know what exactly it meant to be a "renegade chef" and how food could be innovative, but that's what Ino had said, and that's what she told Kiba when he had first suggested the place for dinner.

"Well, I guess that settles it! Iccho it is!" He had replied. "Actually, I heard the same thing. Don't know what any of it means, but I'm game to find out!"

Reservations were rumored to impossible, but Hana had some pull—something about performing a cardiac bypass on the owner's overweight pug—and the two were seated almost immediately upon entry. Sakura had to admit the place was pretty hip: they had preserved the old wooden beams and paneling, but chose to decorate with more modern pieces from Kumo. It was definitely...different. With her work schedule being what it was, she rarely saw anything beyond the walls of the hospital these days and wondered how many more of these types of places had sprung up around the village.

"You're pretty quiet today," Kiba observed as they waited for their food.

Sakura smiled for him. "Sorry, long day at the hospital."

He propped his face against one hand and swished the ceramic teacup with the other. He was drinking sake that had been distilled through a complicated-sounding process involving locally foraged pine needles and spring water from Kumo. The waiter had explained it all with loads of enthusiasm and detail, but Sakura still really didn't get it.

"Anything interestin' happen at work?" Kiba asked, prodding the conversation forward.

"No, not really," She said, wondering whether she should mention Sasuke. "How was your day? Did you end up finding a girlfriend for Akamaru?"

Kiba's nose twitch, the way it did whenever he sensed something was amiss, but a playful smile stretched across his face. "Naw, that guy's even pickier than me. What's the worst thing you saw at the hospital today?"

And as Sakura began recounting the incident about the chunin who had accidently set off an old explosive tag in training ground 11, Kiba draped an arm over the back of his chair and listened attentively with his head cocked and a wolfish smile. Generations of working alongside their four-legged partners had sharpened the Inuzaka Clan's instincts, and their sixth sense for trouble was peerless. Kiba was no exception to this, and even as he laughed as hard as he could at all the right moments, nothing he did seemed to shake loose the unease that had lodged itself deep in his chest. 

.

.

.

Sasuke woke up feeling like his head was being squeezed between a vice. He could already tell he'd be stiff for the next few days judging by the way his whole body screamed in protest as he struggled to sit up in bed. The antibiotics had left his mouth feeling like cotton, and just as he was contemplating on ripping out the IV and going home for a glass of water, the door to his room swung opened and an old nurse stepped in. Funny how hospital staff always seemed know when you were planning an escape.

"Ah, Sasuke-kun, you're awake. Please leave your IV in—you are not to be discharged until Sakura-san says so," she said when she caught Sasuke with the IV between his teeth.

Sasuke's arm fell against his lap.

"Now, now, don't look so put out," she chided. She went to the machines to check his vitals. "You still need to get some rest before you go cavorting about town."

"How long was I out for?"

"Three days. That wound of yours was quite nasty," she continued with her back to him. "Sakura-san spent hours in the surgery room. You were quite lucky, you know. Apparently, it was some new-fangled poison, I hear even your heart stopped for a few—"

The old nurse paused and frowned. She peered closer at the machines. "That's strange, now why would it say it's not getting a clear—" She turned around and sighed when she saw the IV tube hanging freely from its drip. Sasuke's clothes were gone from the chair, and the white curtains billowed freely against the empty bed as the cold breeze drifted in from the open window.

.

.

.

Kakashi had been in the office all-day reading and signing documents. What was the point of getting his left eye restored only to have it ruined by all this fine print? What a terrible waste. He placed the pen down on the desk and flopped against the back of his chair, flexing out the cramp in his fingers.

He used to be a legend in the Shinobi world, and now the greatest threats in his life were growing nearsighted and getting carpal tunnel.

There was a knock at the door. He sat up and grabbed the pen.

"Come in," he called out, shuffling through a stack of papers so he appeared appropriately occupied.

The door open and Sasuke came through. Kakashi dropped the pen and papers and reclined back into his chair.

"Sasuke, good, you've finally risen from the dead. Actually, sorry, that was probably a bit in bad taste. How're you feeling?"

"Like I slept for three days straight."

"Well, that's because you did."

Sasuke shifted his weight his other foot, trying to stave off his creeping exhaustion. "Did you read the scroll?"

"I did," Kakashi replied, and he could feel the fate of the world upon his shoulders again. He'd been able to ignore it for the better part of the past few days, but alas, all good things had to end. "How likely is its existence? Do we even know what it is exactly? "

"Based on what I saw, the probability is high. And it's unclear—I didn't come back just to give you that report; I need to search my clan's archives for more information."

"How's your injury related to all of this?" Kakashi asked, eying the tear across Sasuke's poncho.

"There was an old trap in the ruins. The blade just grazed me, but it was poisoned. An old poison, one that Orochimaru didn't even have in his collection."

"Ah, Sakura did mention the poison was pretty ugly—something about how it ate away at flesh?" Kakashi recalled. "Anyways, you're lucky she managed to whip up an antidote just before your heart stopped a second time. You should thank her. I believe she stayed up an inhuman amount of hours to keep you alive."

Sasuke turned to go. "I'll be leaving in a few weeks after doing some research."

"She's usually at the hospital until from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays" Kakashi continued, reciting his student's schedule from memory. "9 p.m. to 5 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She usually enjoys spending her weekends at the training grounds, though she likes to take extra shifts at the hospital on Sundays," he added helpfully.

Sasuke wordlessly slammed the door shut behind him.

.

.

.

It was early Saturday morning and most of Konoha was still asleep, leaving the streets sparse with pedestrians. Sasuke was taking an old route home, though it had become unfamiliar in his absence. A small apartment complex had replaced the park where he used to play when he was younger, a new restaurant had taken over his favorite bakery, and the old bookstore he used to frequent afterschool was gone, swallowed up by a row of modern-looking residences.

He supposed a lot of it had to do with the post-Pain reconstruction. Sasuke hadn't been there when Pain had crushed Konoha, but he had heard stories about it since during his travels and about how Uzumaki Naruto, Hero of the Hidden Leaf and Savior of the World, had stopped him with a godly flick of his index finger. Sasuke doubted Naruto's index finger alone was good for anything aside from picking his nose, but he conceded that the destruction must have been extensive to warrant this much change. He sprang up and landed lightly on a telephone pole for a change of scenery. From here, Konoha spread out before him in a familiar jumble of roofs and trees and telephone wires.

He had also been gone for a long time, he reminded himself, and it was foolish to think the sleepy little village in his memories was impervious to the passage of time. Konoha would continue to move forward and change, with or without him here to witness it.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the piece of paper he'd found in his pocket as soon as he had left the hospital.

* * *

_Sasuke-kun—_

_I figured you'd leave before you were supposed to._

_Naruto and I are getting dinner tonight at Ichiraku at 9. It's still in the same place. You should show up since I also have some medication for you and it's kinda important that you take it or else your heart might stop again._

_Plus, it'd be nice to have Team 7 get together-Naruto's been so busy and you've been gone for so long. Anyways, rest up and don't overexert yourself or else it'll raise your blood pressure and put a lot of strain on your heart. Did I mention your heart stopped?_

_Okay, anyways, see you tonight!_

_\- Sakura_

_p.s. I have your arm._

* * *

He gazed up at the washed out skies, the March sunlight grazing weakly against his skin. A few branches were beginning to bud with the promise of spring. Two winters ago, he had popped back into the village to help Naruto save the world. If it wasn't a shinobi goddess trying to bring about the apocalypse, then it was the moon crashing into the earth. And now, if he didn't figure out exactly how his ancestors had planned on destroying the village, the world might end up being in danger of ending. Again.

In the distance, the Hokage Monuments loomed, Kakashi's face carved into the rock as a new addition to the succession. He turned to gaze beyond the main gates where a forest of skeletal trees, stripped bare of their leaves, spread out towards the horizon until they met the snowcapped mountains to the north. When the weather warmed, the trees burst into the dense sea of green that was the village's namesake— Sasuke wondered if he'd be around long enough to see it happen.

He folded up Sakura's letter and replaced it in his pocket. He breathed deeply.

He was home.


	2. Threshold Potential

By the devil's luck, Sasuke's old neighborhood had avoided Pain's Shinra Tensei by a hairline of exactly two blocks. It was admittedly a cruel toss of chance that he, the defector and Ex-Five-Shinobi-Nations'-Most-Wanted, would still have a home to return to while most of the villagers had lost everything to Pain’s attack. Sasuke wasn’t really one to look a gift horse in the mouth, although it was a bit much that the Uchiha Compounds had managed to avoid the disaster as well. If anything, he would have been happy to return and find the situs of all his nightmares finally leveled off and buried beneath rubble. However, it had held out, those empty homes and storefronts still standing, still waiting with dark windows. The devil’s luck.

He reached into the letterbox attached to the front of his apartment unit. The house keys he had dropped in there all those years ago were still there. After digging them out, he let himself into his old apartment. 

Even as a boy he had lived a spartan life, and aside from a few calligraphy paintings or two on his wall, his home was devoid of any personal effects; nothing told of the told thirteen-year-old that had once lived here. Though, to be honest, there hadn’t been much to Sasuke back then aside from his single-minded obsession with avenging his clan, or at least, that’s what he used to tell himself. Now, he just looked at the empty surfaces and bare walls and felt like a stranger in his own home.

It was also surprisingly...clean? As soon as he and Naruto had defeated Kaguya and finished slugging the shit out of each other, Sasuke had been held under lock and key for weeks. Ibuki had termed his “Tender Loving Care.” Of course, Ibuki’s idea of TLC consisted of Chakra-suppression seals, sensory deprivation, and binding jutsu with the occasional kick to the ribs, but considering Sasuke’s track record and Ibuki’s own reputation for utterly fucking people up, Sasuke knew he had gotten off easy with just a few bruises and maybe another notch in his PTSD count. By the time they let him free, he was already raring to leave the village and stopping by to check up on his apartment hadn’t made it onto his list of priorities.

After six years of neglect he had expected a pelt of dust to have laid claim to everything in his apartment, but there wasn't even a sprinkle of gray. Sasuke frowned. In fact, it almost looked as if his furniture was actually shining in the sunlight, and he began to pick up on a soapy, lemon scent in the air. His keen eyes spotted the small note lying atop the kitchen countertop, and even before he picked it up, he had a sneaking suspicion of who it was from.

* * *

_Sasuke-kun—_

_Sorry for all the notes. Since you've been gone for so long, we decided to tidy up your apartment for you while you were at the hospital. Naruto said your water heater was broken. He told the landlady, and she said she'd have it fixed by the time you get back. Hope you don't mind the intrusion!_

_-Sakura and Naruto_

* * *

Naruto's name had been crossed out and beneath it was scrawled " **A Being Far Superior to You in Every Possible Way."** Sasuke was impressed; even on paper Naruto managed to sound like an idiot. He wondered how they had gotten in since he didn't recall ever giving either of them a spare key (considering everything back in the day, it would have been weird if he had). He glanced at his window; they had probably broke in.

For the past three-and-a-half years he had been roaming alone around the continent, going wherever his feet would take him. He had told his old teammates he had been looking for “Redemption” because that was the only excuse that sounded legitimate enough to cover for the restlessness that had been rutting against his chest every waking minute he spent behind the village walls. He knew had been officially forgiven by the government, and most importantly, his loved ones, but the idea of slipping back into the stream of Konoha’s daily life, of inserting himself back into the citizenry’s rank and file as if he was some long-lost puzzle piece that still fit, had rubbed him in all the wrong ways. So, he had told everyone “Redemption,” but really, he just needed a break from people.

Sasuke had purposefully taken his wanderings far from most large civilizations, sometimes chasing rumors and myths, but usually spent his time lounging by a riverside and feeling the sun against his skin or hiking up a mountain because it looked interesting. At night, if he was camping outside, which was often, he’d lay out on his back and stare at the stars, letting the view of the universe wash his mind blank. All in the name of Redemption, of course.

It wasn’t unusual for him to go for weeks without seeing another human being, and he quite liked it that way, but within one morning his teammates had managed to barge into his life and shatter his wonderful little glass spun illusion of being alone, Master of the Universe. He wasn't overjoyed, but he couldn't say he hated it either.

Yet.

He checked the clock on his wall. The hands on the face read 10:31, leaving him plenty of time to shower, stretch, and relax before the grand reunion at Ichiraku. Maybe he'd even take a short nap.

In the bathroom, he shucked off his poncho and peeled off his shirt, revealing the mass of bandage spooled around his chest. Pulling up on the taped end, he began unwinding the cloth in front of the mirror. After a few passes, the rest of the wrapping loosened on its own and fell away, exposing a thick, raised scar. Sasuke cocked an eyebrow.

For all the blood it had gushed out, he had expected the aftermath to be more horrific _—_ ugly stitches, dried crusts of blood, even a bit of bruising. The injury had put him through two weeks of hell, and all he had to show for it was a weak-ass line across his chest. It all seemed a little anticlimactic, and Sakura was maybe a little too good at her job.

Sasuke poked it and winced. At least it still hurt.

He was vaguely aware that he probably shouldn’t get it wet, but he hopped into the shower anyways. Most of his baths the past few months had taken place in rivers fed by snowmelt, and not even the great Uchiha bloodline could keep his teeth from chattering in forty degree water. It came down to a choice between a hot shower and a risk of infection, and he chose the hot water valve. Besides, who knew? Maybe a bacterial infection would bring the wound back up to an appropriate level of pus and gore.

After he finished, Sasuke toweled off and pulled on a pair of old sweats and a t-shirt. Taking his pile of traveling clothes, he dumped them unceremoniously into the trash. The torn poncho was unsalvageable and his shirt and pants were caked in so much filth that they were also a lost cause.

As he rubbed a towel through his hair, he considered doing a few stretches, but took one look at his bed and decided to flop onto instead, still feeling lightheaded from his hot shower. As soon as his head hit the pillow, exhaustion smothered his thoughts, and he was out.

.

.

.

When Sasuke opened his eyes again, the room was dark. For a disorienting second he was confused as to where he was. Home. He sat up in bed stiffly, rubbing his eyes as he slowly clawed his way back up to the world of the waking.

Moonlight flooded in from the glass doors to the balcony, spilling across the floor towards his bed. Outside, beyond the balustrade, he could see lights from the other buildings, brighter and more numerous than he remembered. He stared out slack-jawed, his expression blank. Then his eyes grew wide as realization burst to the surface like a sudden geyser: _The dinner._ He glanced at the digital clock.

"Shit." He threw off the covers and rolled out of bed, almost tripping in his mad scramble. It was already 11:08 PM and he was running late by two hours.

Sasuke rooted through his drawers, looking for something to wear, but everything was either too small or full of holes or too small. After some intensive excavation, he managed to dig up some clothes that used to be a little looser on him...six years years ago. He gave it a go anyways.

"Damn it," he muttered as the final product. The pants were too short and the shirt fell two inches above his belly-button. He made a split-second decision and changed back into his sweats and old shirt, figuring it was better to risk looking like a bum than give Naruto more ammunition for his "You Look Like A Girl" jokes.

His hair was still damp from the shower earlier, so he grabbed the towel off the bed and rubbed it furiously against his head, hoping the friction would have at least some drying effect. The days may have been getting warmer, but it was still March and nighttime temperatures often dipped below freezing.

Sasuke opened his the bedroom door, wondering if any of his sweatshirts would still fit. If he remembered correctly, he kept them all in the closet by—

"Sasuke-kun!"

"Hey asshole."

Sasuke paused at the door's threshold, the towel still at his head while he stared dumbly at the two intruders who were currently sitting at his kitchen table.

He blinked. Sakura waved, Naruto grinned, and Sasuke found his voice. "What're you both doing here?"

Naruto pointed to the crowd of plastic bags on the table between him and Sakura. "Dinner. Hope you're hungry."

"We figured you'd fallen asleep and thought we could bring you something to eat," Sakura explained.

Letting his towel fall around his neck, Sasuke joined them, sliding into the seat across from Sakura. She beamed at him as she always had since their academy days, and he thought there were at least some things in this world that never changed. He reached over to peek into one of the bags. "Chinese?"

"Sorry, it was the only thing open this late," she apologized.

"Hey, don't go on spoiling him, beggars can't be choosers," Naruto said. "If you're going to be a weenie about it, Sasuke, you should've just shown up tonight. Do you know how long we waited for you at Ichiraku? Man, and I was banking on you treating me to some ramen too!"

Sasuke pulled out a white Styrofoam box and popped it open, revealing a mountain of deep fried chicken glimmering beneath a lacquer of soy sauce and cornstarch.

"Sorry, but I kind of died a few days ago, remember?" Sasuke said, not actually apologetic. A rush of saliva flooded his mouth at the prospect of some seriously heavy calories. He wasn't a huge fan of Chinese, but he also hadn't eaten in the past four days. Two weeks if they were counting actual meals. Naruto was right; beggars shouldn't be choosers.

"As long as you take it easy, Sasuke-kun, you should be fine," Sakura said. She broke apart a pair of chopsticks and offered them to him.

"Thanks," Sasuke said, taking them from her.

"Oh right, how's that gaping hole in your chest?" Naruto asked. "You should've seen yourself doped up on morphine. It was great. I wish I had a camera with me."

"M'fine," Sasuke managed to grunt, too busy eating to rejoin Naruto's jab at full capacity. He shoveled pieces of chicken into his mouth as fast as the chopsticks would allow. Living on the edge of society for the past few years had condensed his diet to be made of mostly powdered supplements and whatever bushmeat he managed to catch. Compared to Rabbit on a Stick, General Tso's Chicken was a Technicolor explosion of flavors. It almost brought tears to is eyes.

"Do you want a fork…er…or a spoon instead…?" Sakura asked as she opened a box of rice and slid it over by Sasuke's elbow. "Might help you eat faster..."

He shook his head no, his mouth too crammed with masticated chicken to be able to give a coherent reply. To be honest, if Sakura and Naruto hadn't been at the table with him, he probably would've just used his hands to smash everything into his mouth.

Naruto and Sakura meandered back to the earlier conversation they had been having before Sasuke had staggered out of his room, leaving their third teammate alone to eat in peace. They didn't have to wait long, however. Less than two minutes had passed before Sasuke had decimated the food.

"Holy shit," Naruto muttered when he noticed.

Sasuke wiped his mouth with a napkin in an attempt to keep up appearances. Being on the road for three and half years hadn't turned him into a complete animal. Now that there was enough fuel in his tank to power his brain, he managed to ask, "How long have you two been here for?"

Sakura got up, and went over to the sink to get some water.

Naruto leaned back and folded his arms behind his head. "Eh, we got here, what, like an hour ago? Right Sakura-chan?"

She turned around and passed the glass of water to Sasuke, who took it from her gratefully. Sakura sat back down next to Naruto. "Yeah, maybe around 10?"

Sasuke frowned. He hadn't been the slightest bit aware that they had come in and privately chided himself for letting his guard down.

Naruto propped his face on his hand and narrowed his eyes. "Not that I care, but how exactly did you get your ass kicked? You're like, the strongest ninja in the whole country, right after me."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Please, Naruto, you were the one who was running around like a headless chicken when you first saw him."

"W-what—I—no I wasn't!"

"'Sakura-chan! You gotta do something! Sasuke's not gonna die is he? He can't die! You can't let him die, Sakura-chan!'" Sakura mocked, gesturing wildly with her hands in imitation of their blonde teammate.

"Lies!" Naruto objected, his face turning bright red.

Sakura laughed. "Basically, this guy here," she pinched Naruto's cheeks, "was worried sick about you."

Sasuke deadpanned. "Gross."

"Hey!" Naruto snapped while shaking a fist at him. "If you'd just been more careful, none of this would've happened, asshole!"

Sasuke took a sip of water and ignored him.

"That wound _was_ pretty bad," Sakura said. "You gave us a couple scares in the operating room," she said lightly, but her smile was a little forced. Sasuke remembered Kakashi mentioning how she had stayed up in the emergency room to keep him alive, and noticed the dark circles beneath her eyes and gray pallor of her face. He wondered how much sleep she was getting, but instead of asking, he said, ""You both know that, historically, the Uchiha's relationship with Konoha had always been...strained."

Sakura and Naruto nodded slowly.

"Well, it seems my clan had sealed something away, a long time ago."

"What was it?" Naruto asked.

"I don't know, but it was something big—something bad."

"Wait," Sakura cut in. "If you don't even know what is, how do you know it's bad?"

"There's a secret Uchiha outpost in the Wind Country. I found some old scrolls there mentioning a seal."

"Complicated and high level?" Naruto guessed.

"And dangerous. It requires human sacrifices."

"Shit. How many? Like 20 people?"

"A whole village worth of lives just to unseal it."

"Ah man, and I thought we were finally done with the whole End of the World stuff. This is bogus." Naruto rubbed the back of his neck. "How do you know that this thing was even supposed to be used against Konoha?"

"The part in the scroll that said 'in order to destroy the Village Hidden in the Leaves' was a pretty good hint."

"Okay, point. And lemme guess, and you have no idea where exactly this thing is."

"That's why I'm back. I'm hoping the clan archives might have more information."

Naruto scratched his neck. "I still don't get what any of this has to do with that hole in your chest."

Sasuke rubbed his thumb up and down his glass of water. "There was a trap."

Naruto gaped. "Wait a sec, are you serious? You almost died because of a trap? A goddamn _booby_ trap?” Naruto slammed a hand on the table. “What happen to your freaky ghost armor guy? Last I checked, that thing could take a punch from a motherfucking goddess!”

"It was one hell of a trap. Made by Uchiha, for Uchiha," Sasuke replied dryly.

"I don't get it."

"It means," Sakura said slowly, her green eyes looking off to the far wall as she connected the dots in her head. "The trap was specifically made to take down an Uchiha, which _also_ means that since the clan was apparently trying to keep some clan members out, there was probably an opposing faction—Uchiha who were against this 'thing' being used. And where there's an opposing faction, there might be more information on how to stop it, or at least on what this thing exactly is, right?"

Sasuke nodded, unable to hide the small smile on his lips. Okay, so he was a little impressed. He had almost forgotten that Sakura was smarter than the average person— way smarter. Then again, standing next to Naruto could make anyone look like a genius.

“So I'm assuming you won't be staying in the village long?" Naruto asked.

"I'll be here for a few weeks maybe, depending on how the research goes. But I'll have to leave again eventually to find this thing," Sasuke replied, not sure why he couldn’t look at Sakura in that moment.

"You're always coming and going as you please like a stray cat" Naruto muttered. "Anyways, enough chit-chat," he said and pointed at Sasuke. "The real question is, how long are you gonna go around with just one arm? It won't be a fair fight if I beat you like that."

"One hand is more than enough to take you down, dumbass," Sasuke replied.

" _Goddammit_ —okay, fine, so I walked into that one, but seriously, we need to spar. And by spar, I mean I need to give you a beat down," Naruto said, cracking his knuckles with a devilish grin.

"Come to the hospital tomorrow Sasuke-kun. Afternoons are less busy for me." Sakura then pointed at Naruto. "But no sparring for a week."

Naruto sat up. " _What_?"

Even Sasuke frowned a little.

"Doctor's orders." Sakura glared at her two teammates. "You two have to promise or I'm not giving Sasuke-kun his second arm."

"Are you holding my arm hostage?"

"Isn't there some doctor code that goes against that?" Naruto asked.

"Promise!" Sakura demanded, and even Sasuke felt himself squirming a little under her fierce gaze. “Do even realize how messed up your body was? That poison eviscerated your organs and charka system, _eviscerated._ ” She jabbed an accusatory finger at Sasuke, who had to fight down the urge to shrink away from it. What the hell, it’s not like he had _asked_ to be eviscerated. His lips twisted petulantly as he shot her a sullen glare, the unavoidable byproduct of being the youngest.

“Promise,” Sakura pressed, this time a little less forcefully, but there was a lilt to her voice that caused the two young men to glance at each other. More than any titanic roar Sakura could have unleashed, it was this tone that shook them both to their cores, dredging up bad memories of all the times that she had begged them to stop, and all the times they had ignored her, too busy trying to bust open each other’s faces to listen. Ultimately, however, it had been Sakura, through her mess of ugly tears and anger, who had eventually pieced them together, who then hugged them afterwards like they were the absolute centers of her universe, when, in reality, they were just two knuckleheads that had by a strange tilt of fate been endowed with earth-shaking powers. Still, she had forgiven and loved them despite their idiocy, which had likely left the most scars on her heart. So now, whenever their pink-haired teammate asked them for something, like _really_ asked, Naruto and Sasuke did it.

Naruto was the first to helplessly relent. "Ugh…promise.”

"…promise," Sasuke muttered.

They could have mustered more enthusiasm for a root canal, but Sakura was satisfied, and rewarded them with a tired smile. "Good."

.

.

.

The next time Sasuke checked the clock it was past one. Team 7 had whittled away the hours with talk, which really just meant Sasuke and Naruto bickering with Sakura stepping in every so often to referee. At some point they had all migrated into the living room.

Sakura yawned, stretched her arms above her, and forced herself off the couch.

"Well," she said, rubbing her eyes. "I better get going—long day tomorrow—today. Shoot. Let's go Naruto."

Naruto, who was lying face down on the floor, muttered something intelligible.

Sakura stood over him with crossed arms.

"Naruto," she warned.

"Sakura-chan," he whinged. "It's too cold outside."

Sasuke appeared at Sakura's side and nudged Naruto's head distastefully with his foot. "Hey, get up already."

Naruto swatted Sasuke's leg away and curled tighter into himself, seemingly trying to revert to his amniotic state. "Nobody likes you, go away."

" _Naruto_ ," Sakura said again, her voice loaded with unspoken threats.

The blonde whined unintelligibly.

Sasuke sighed. "Just leave him. Trying to make him leave is probably more trouble than it's worth."

Naruto _had_ fixed his water heater after all, and the shower this morning had been a godsend.

"If you drool on my rug I'm going shave off your hair with chidori," Sasuke threatened.

Naruto responded with a snore.

"Well…if you're sure…" Sakura said as she followed Sasuke to the door, grabbing her coat along the way.

"It's Naruto, not a convict," Sasuke pointed out and opened the door for her. Although a convict would’ve likely been easier to deal with.

Sakura laughed. "True," she said, slipping into her coat and taking a step outside. "Well, thanks for—"

Sasuke placed his hand on her shoulder to hold her back. "Wait," he said before letting go.

Sakura turned around to see him pulling a sweatshirt from the small closet next to the entry way and wriggle into it. He stepped into some sneakers by the door and hit the lights to his apartment before stepping out next to her. He shut the door behind them. A beat of silence hung in the air as they stood side by side in the frozen darkness, their breaths curling out of their mouths like pale smoke beneath the moonlight.

Sasuke pulled the hood over his head and shoved his hand into the sweatshirt's pocket. "Let's go. It's freezing."

"What?"

Sasuke turned around to look at his teammate. "Aren't you headed home?"

"Uhm…yeah…" Sakura was confused. "Do you need to go somewhere too?"

They stared at each other for a long moment. Sasuke was naturally poker-faced, but Sakura saw an uncharacteristic rainbow of emotions play across his features: first disbelief, then puzzlement, then disbelief again, until it finally settled on irritation.

He brushed past her, heading for the stairwell at a brisk pace.

"Wait! Sasuke-kun, where're you going? It's late —"

"I'm taking you home," he shouted, directing his answer at the night sky.

"Oh," Sakura said, letting it all sink in. She then hurried to catch up to Sasuke's longer strides, his footsteps already clanging out on the metal staircase. Thankfully he had slowed down a bit, and by the time they reached the bottom, Sakura was just a step behind him. "But I live far away! Are you sure it's okay?"

He was planning on ignoring the question when she suddenly stopped him by the arm. "Ah! Hold on, I almost forgot!" She reached into her coat and held out a crumpled paper bag. Sasuke took it from her and peeked inside, curious.

"It's your medication-antibiotics. Take one from the red lid in the morning and one from the blue lid in the evening starting tomorrow for the next thirty days," she instructed.

Sasuke looked up from the bag and at her. He couldn't even keep a houseplant plant alive for that long.

"Sasuke-kun, _please._ ”

There was that tone again, and he felt his heart slip. Still, Sasuke wanted to tell her that he was fine, and she needed to stop worrying, but beneath the streetlamp's harsh lighting the exhaustion on her face appeared more pronounced—her cheekbones gaunter, her skin more pallid — so Sasuke bit back his words and nodded instead. He stashed the paper bag away his sweatshirt pocket, knowing it would make her happy.

"Thanks," she said.

For the second time that night, Saksuke wanted to ask her how much sleep she'd been getting, but the question in his head refused to form on his tongue. Instead, he said, "I figured taking two pills a day would be easier than having my jaw punched out."

"Don't worry, I would've fixed it for you afterwards," she said, her smile was a little _too_ sweet considering her words.

They started walking again, the soles of their shoes scraping against the dirt road as they walked from one puddle of light beneath the street lamps to the next, their breaths trailing from their mouths in a slow haze of white. It was late and the streets were empty. For a moment, Sasuke felt as if he were the Master of the Universe again.

"Hasn't anyone called you out yet for abusing your power?" Sasuke asked.

Beside him, Sakura cracked her knuckles. "Nope."

"You've grown to be quite terrifying," Sasuke observed.

"Thanks, I'll take that as a compliment coming from you," Sakura said, the corners of her lips curling up into a self-satisfied grin. "Speaking of growing, you've grown quite a bit too." She placed a hand over the top of her head and brought it across to him. It hit him at the shoulder. "Huh, between you and Naruto, I wonder who's taller now."

"Me." His reply was immediate.

Sakura snorted. _Men_.

They rounded a corner and halted.

"Kiba," Sakura said, surprised.

"Sakura—oh, hey Sasuke!" Kiba raised a hand in friendly greeting.

Sasuke nodded in response. He wondered what the young man was doing out so late. Maybe walking Akamaru? But the giant dog was nowhere in sight.

"What're you doing here?" Sakura asked.

Hearing the tone of her voice, Sasuke's gaze slipped down towards her. He couldn’t get a clear view of her face, but her body seemed tense, one hand clasped over her chest—her nervous tick. His attention flicked up to study the Inzuka boy, who frowned, looking puzzled as well. "I'm here to walk you home. You said you'd be done around one right?"

"Right…right, I just didn't expect…" She broke off her words. No, her reaction was all wrong. Sakura's lips pressed together into a hard line as she bit her lower lips.

"…Sakura, you okay?" He glanced at Sasuke again and something seemed to click behind his gaze. "Uh…do you want me to just go home? If Sasuke's taking you back that's fine too…"

"No, no, no—that's not it—I Just—" Sakura pressed the palm of her hands against her eyes, trying to force out all the ridicous thoughts that had been reeling in her head. When she lowered them, her skittishness was gone, and she offered Kiba an apologetic smile. “Sorry, Kiba, I'm just little worn down. It’s been a long few days at the hospital. Thanks for coming, I was just a little surprised that's all."

She turned and circled her arms around Sasuke's waist, giving him a quick squeeze. "It was good seeing you, Sasuke-kun. Thanks for having us over and coming out all this way," Sakura said and let go just before he had the chance to pat her awkwardly on the back.

"Remember, tomorrow afternoon at the hospital. I'll let the front desk know, just tell them you're looking for me."

Sasuke dipped his head once, but Sakura didn't catch it in her hurry. Kiba caught her shoulders beneath his arm and spun them around to leave. He looked behind him and raised his free arm. "'Night Sasuke, it's good to have you back, buddy. We should go for some beers sometime with Naruto and the boys."

Sasuke gave no indication he had heard him. Kiba's gaze lingered on the Uchiha, who stood rooted to the spot, watching them leave with a face like granite. Finally, Kiba pulled his gaze away to look ahead.

"Hey," he said, giving Sakura a quick squeeze on the shoulder to get her attention once they were far enough away.

"Hmmm?"

"Is Sasuke all right?"

"Well, entire his chakra system did get trashed. That poison really put his body through the ringer. And he's still missing an arm, too, I guess."

"I mean, he's…uh…better now, right?"

"If he takes the medication I gave him and doesn't exert himself for a few weeks like I told him to, he should be fine."

Kiba sighed against her. "Never mind."

"Wait, that wasn't your question?"

He chuckled. "Sort of, no. Actually, more importantly, are you okay?"

Sakura paused. The sudden gentleness of Kiba's voice had inundated the question with a host of different meanings and she was unsure of how to respond. Sensing her hesitation, Kiba's arm politely slipped off of her shoulder. A wave of self-loathing suddenly swept through her.

"Yeah," she murmured. "I'm fine."

"Good." Kiba mussed her hair playfully, but let his arm fall to his side. Sakura bit her lower lip when she realized she couldn’t bring herself to reach for it.

.

.

.

Sasuke stepped into his apartment shivering. He shut the door behind him and leaned heavily against it. From somewhere in the darkness, Naruto snores rumbled out like a seismic activity. Kicking off his shoes, Sasuke grabbed the spare blanket out of the closet and navigated the dim apartment towards the living room where he found Naruto passed out on the rug, a stream of drool trickling out the corner of his mouth.

"Damn it, Naruto," he muttered as he held up one corner of the blanket and let it unfurl towards the floor. For a second he considered smothering Naruto alive with it. His days as the antagonist were supposed to be long behind him, but would people _really_ blame him for ridding the world of just one village idiot?

Probably.

Sasuke threw the blanket over his sleeping friend, deciding he'd get even another day, already formulating a strategy for accidentally grazing Naruto's hairline with Chidori the next time they sparred.

Sasuke paused at the threshold of his bedroom, sensing a shift in the air. It had grown quiet.

"You're back early," Naruto's voice came groggily from the floor. "What happened to walking Sakura-chan home?"

"We ran into Kiba. He took her back."

Sasuke heard joints snap and pop as Naruto slowly stood up, and then a muffled thump as he threw himself onto the couch.

"Y'know,” Naruto said around a massive yawn. “They're only dating. It's not official or anything."

"And why should I care?" Sasuke's voice had dropped a few degrees in temperature.

"Just thought you'd wanna kn—"

Sasuke shut the door to his room before Naruto could finish. The blonde sighed and folded his arms behind head, staring up at the ceiling. "Sheesh, it's not like it's my fault you're so slow," he grumbled.

.

.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. As I was revising, I realized Chinese food probably isn’t very realistic in the Naruto world. And then I thought fuck it, if they have angel cakes, why the hell not Chinese food. 
> 
> 2\. 10 points to your House if you’re one of those poor suckers that sat through that episode like me.


	3. The New and Strange

Sasuke woke to sunlight gushing through the windows. Judging by its amount and intensity, he suspected he had slept in. His clock confirmed this, reading 10:34 A.M.

Normally he'd be awake five hours ago, but normally his bed was on a bunch of loose rocks and sometimes scorpions. Whenever his travels had taken him through a forest, moss always presented itself as a more comfortable alternative, though it had its downsides. Once he had woken to a giant centipede the size of a squirrel resting on his chest; another time, it was a spider the size of his hand on his face. He may have blasted off a Chidori or five on both occasions. After all the "roughing it" he had done over the past few years, sleeping on a mattress with a roof over his head had induced his body into a coma.

As he rubbed the sleep from his eyes and lay buoyed atop mattress springs and feather-filled pillows—the luxuries of civilization—the exhausted part of him proposed they just stayed in bed forever. He almost took up the offer until his more industrious half brought to his attention the list of errands he had to do: groceries, new clothes, get his arm at the hospital. So he kicked himself out of bed, washed up in the bathroom, and emerged from his bedroom yawning hugely and stretching his arms overhead. The couch in the living room was empty, and he realized Naruto had left, the blanket Sasuke had lent the night before was left folded in an unexpected display of good manners.

After ticking off his to-do list one last time—groceries, clothes, hospital—Sasuke headed out, cutting a route down smaller roads, alleyways, and sometimes rooftops as he headed for the market district. He usually didn't mind walking and normally wouldn't have minded a casual stroll through the neighborhood, however domestic upkeep sat pretty far down on his list of things he liked to do. As far as he could tell, every second he wasted waiting in line was another second that could have gone towards training or reading or some sort of self-cultivation. Expending the energy to take a couple shortcuts to get his chores over with as quickly as possible was totally worth it in Sasuke’s view. Besides, he already had a late start to his morning and hoped to squeeze in some training before heading down to the hospital to meet Sakura, who had left with Kiba last night.

Wait, that last bit was irrelevant.

Okay, it was just that Sasuke couldn't even remember Sakura even talking to the dog-boy when they were kids. Granted, Sasuke _had_ been gone for over half a decade, and a lot could've happened in his absence. Things change, he reminded himself, and maybe sometimes people spoke to each other and then asked each other out.

He then waved off the rest of those thoughts like a bothersome swarm of gnats. Right now, he was a busy man with many busy things to do, and if he was to go about doing them as efficiently as possible, he couldn't afford to be squandering his thoughts on Sakura's dating life.

He yanked the hood of his sweater over his head before leaping up onto the rooftops with excessive strength; a few of the ceramic shingles cracked and crumbled away beneath the force of his landing. Ignoring this senseless act of vandalism, he sped across the roof's spine, his buzzing irritation driving him to go faster and faster until he was blitzing over the village at full tilt like a bullet in sweatpants, leaving damaged roofing (and later, upset homeowners) in his wake. At high speed, the already-brisk air stung like needles against his skin, but the cold pouring over him couldn't touch what felt like hot iron bands clamped around his chest.

.

.

.

As it turned out, running errands wasn't as awful as Sasuke remembered it to be. It was much worse.

He skidded to a stop at the edge of the shopping district, plumes of white vapor trailing from his open mouth after the unnecessarily hard pace he had set. Well, at least he had gotten to the shops quickly, or at least, what he figured were the shops—it was honestly a bit hard to tell where exactly he was.

During the short time he'd been back, Sasuke had a vague idea Konoha had undergone a transformation, but the extent of that change had not been impressed upon him until this moment. The old dirt roads had ballooned out into a wide avenue paved with flagstones, and the rows of small family-owned shops had vanished, unable to hold out against massive steel and glass monstrosities Sasuke would later come to learn were Kumo imports called “Department Stores.” A rush of shoppers in coats and scarves bustled past him with shopping bags hanging from their arms, their cheeks red in the cold air as their individual voices disappeared into the greater hum of the crowd. He blinked hard, feeling dazed. The village from his childhood was gone.

After a bit of walking around and peering suspiciously through windows, he finally decided to give one of the establishments. The automatic doors opened with a high-tech zip, and a wall of techno music slammed into him, pounding out a painful tattoo against his chest. A girl with purple streaks in her hair looked up from where she was folding clothes on the counter. "Welcome!" She screamed over the blaring speakers. Sasuke turned around and left without even stepping past the threshold.

His experiences elsewhere weren’t much better. People kept shoving flyers into his hands about something called a “promo,” employees kept asking him whether he needed any assistance despite his insistence that he did not, and at one place, he had almost asphyxiated in an attack of free perfume samples. Shopping for clothes had officially become even more treacherous than infiltrating enemy lines.

After an hour and a half of searching and dodging aggressively friendly store employees, Sasuke finally managed to secure a bagful of new outfits that weren't purposely riddled with holes or armored in sequins ("This season's hottest looks!" explained one poster in a store). He spent another half hour trying to figure out where the hell they had moved the grocery store, and another hour trying to actually buy his groceries while trying to avoid all the housewives who propelled their shopping carts around like battering rams.

By the time Sasuke stumbled back home from the warfront, it was almost two. He threw his groceries into his fridge without bothering to take them out of the bag and jumped into the shower. After changing, he washed a tomato in the sink and sunk his teeth into it as he pushed past his front door, this time aiming for the hospital with his hair still damp and sticking to his temples like strokes of wet paint.

.

.

.

"Ah, Uchiha-san, yes? Sakura-san's office is down that way through those doors, hallway B, room 225B, upstairs, take a left, end of the hall, to your right," the young man at the Hospital front desk directed.

Sasuke blinked once and he had it memorized. "Shouldn't I sign in?" He asked trying not to breathe too deeply—he had never been crazy about hospital smell. The waiting room behind him was filled with rows and rows of chairs, most of them taken up by the sick, old, and occasional hypochondriac. A few potted trees had been placed in the corners in a well-meaning attempt to liven up the room, but their stunted forms only underscored the morose atmosphere.

The phone in front of the clerk rang and the man went to pick it up. "No, no she told us you were coming—Hello? Ah yes? I'm sorry, no." He silently urged Sasuke on with a _shoo_ - _shoo_ of his hands, so Sasuke complied and made his way through the double doors and into a corridor plastered in gray linoleum flooring. He kept to the edges, avoiding the traffic of stone-faced patients and hospital staff as they shuffled along to their next appointment with a look of grim determination. Sasuke got the sense this place was somehow meaner than he had remembered it, though, to be fair, he was only ever at the hospital when he was banging at death's door, so maybe he was projecting a little.

He found room 225B without much effort. As the clerk at the front had promised, it was tucked away in the corner at the end of the second floor. The door was propped wide open so he stepped in without knocking. The air inside was markedly colder and crisper than the hallway owing to the large window that had been left ajar towards the frozen March skies.

Adjacent to the window, a desk had been pushed up against the wall. A mass of papers and files littered its surface, and atop the debris Sakura’s head lay pillowed on her folded arms. Her shoulders rose and fell in slow, measured beats, in rhythm with the deep expansion and contraction of her lungs. She was turned away from him, but Sasuke didn't have to see her face to know she was a sleep. In stillness of the room, he could hear the wind whistling through the crack in the window and the steady hush of her breath as she drifted through that dark ocean in her head, worlds away from where he stood.

Sasuke cycled through his options—leave, wake her, or wait—but before he could settle on one, Sakura stirred, the waves boring her back towards him and the room. Slowly, she lifted herself off the desk.

"You're here," she croaked without even turning to look at him. She threw herself back into her chair and stretched her arms above her, yawning hugely; Sasuke suddenly thought of sunflowers in bloom.

"I can leave if it's a bad time," he said, already shifting his weight towards the door.

"No, no, no," she said waving her hands in front of her, "I just dozed off a for a bit. This is actually a really good time—the perfect time. Here—" She stood up and made her way to the examination table beside her desk. She patted the cushion while keeping one hand in the pocket of her white coat. "Take a seat."

Sasuke didn't move as he studied her. She was understandably still tired after waking from a nap, but Sasuke thought her exhaustion ran deeper, rooted in something more systemic. His sharp eyes mapped out the roads of angry red veins in her eyes. Beneath them were the heavy bags that had been present since yesterday, and probably much longer than that.

Her smile contracted a little beneath the press of his stare. "Something wrong?" She asked.

"Nothing," he said and strode over to sit as she had directed.

"Your hair's still wet," she observed, and Sasuke allowed her to reach over and hold a bit of it between her fingers. She let go and smiled delightedly. "Ah, it's frozen."

"I didn't have time to dry it," he explained, rubbing his hands through his brittle hair to try and free them from their frosted chunks.

"You know that damages your hair follicles? Think of all the split ends you'll have, the horror."

"The horror," Sasuke agreed wryly. "Shouldn't I be more worried about catching a cold?"

"That's a bunch of bull. You could stand outside in a blizzard in your underwear and never catch the sniffles. The only things you'd be at risk for is frostbite and hypothermia. Anyways," she said clapping her hands together to punctuate the end of a topic and the beginning of a new one, "take your shirt off." Maybe six years ago he would have refused if Sakura had asked while blushing, but this Sakura was all business and no-nonsense, and so he found himself obeying her authoritative tone without a chance to think it over.

"I'm just going to check some of your vitals," she explained while plugging into her stethoscope. Sasuke just nodded, keeping his eyes fixed on her desk, sensing the air around his bare chest tremor as she stepped into his personal space. He expected the touch of the stethoscope's metallic cold and was surprised instead by the light graze of her fingertips. "Mmm, looks like this is healing well," she murmured to herself.

"What?" He looked down and his gaze collided into hers. Had her eyes always been so green? He flinched and his own eyes darted away, back to the safety of the table, but it was too late—the damage was done and his runaway heartbeat hammered traitorously against his chest.

"Your wound," she explained. She was so close he could almost feel her words moving against him as she spoke. "It's healing nicely." And then she pressed the stethoscope to his chest, belatedly warning him, "this is going to be cold."

Sasuke hoped his heartbeat didn't sound as booming and frantic to her ears as it did in his. After a small eternity, Sakura finally pulled away from him with a small frown.

"Well, everything sounds fine, but your heart's beating a little fast. It might be a small side-effect of the medication." She raised a questioning eyebrow at him. "You _have_ been taking them right?"

"I took some this morning," he lied without blinking. Actually, he had completely forgotten about the pills until that moment, but Sakura was none the wiser so she nodded, pleased. "Good, if you forget a dose, things could get ugly, from a medical perspective, I mean."

His dark eyes cut to her. "Ugly?"

"Oh you know," she said breezily, "massive internal bleeding, cardiac arrest, hemorrhagic stroke, and so on. But you shouldn't have any worries since you've been taking the medicine like I directed, right, Sasuke-kun?" She beamed.

"Uh—"

"Great, and now for your new arm!" She went back over to her desk while Sasuke remained seated with a stricken expression. His fears of a heart attack were quickly chucked aside when he saw Sakura yank open her bottom drawer, reach in, and pull out an _arm_.

She turned to face him and waved it triumphantly in the air, its fingers flopping flaccidly about as dismembered limbs were usually wont to do. "Ta-dah!"

Sasuke could only stare at the scene of horror before him. "What the hell is that?"

"It’s your arm? This is why you're here isn't it?" She asked as she wagged the limb in his direction. Sasuke wondered if he should be insulted that she was treating his body part in such a cavalier manner.

"You just pulled that thing out of a drawer."

"So?"

"Shouldn't it have been it in an icebox or something?" Actually, Sasuke had no idea where new arm were supposed to be kept, but he was pretty sure there was some sort of regulation against keeping them alongside one’s file hangers. 

"Relax, relax," Sakura assured him as she made her way back to him, and it took all the discipline Sasuke had to not scoot away from her. "It's not actually flesh, though it's a pretty good imitation, right?" She held it out with one hand and poked it. The white surface indented slightly beneath her fingertips and sprang back up as soon as she removed her hand. "We grew them out of Hashirama-sama's cells, but it behaves more like an inorganic compound than a biological one.”

Sasuke’s gaze asked for a less technical explanation. 

“It doesn't rot,” she said in sum.

Sasuke gave it a dubious prod with his own finger. It was blanched of color, felt like rubber, and hit all the right notes on the creepy scale; no wonder Naruto kept his bandaged.

"All right," Sakura said, "so before I attach this, I'm going to need your help. Could you pool some of your chakra to the bottom of your left arm—er stump? Great, all right, so right when I attach this, I want you to force out as much chakra as you can into the prosthetic. There's already a chakra circulatory system present in this thing, but you're going to need to activate it to have it link up with your own chakra system. Okay on the count of three—one, two—oh yeah, it might sting a little when I cut you open—three." Sakura touched Sasuke's stump with a glowing hand, slicing off the skin to expose the network of nerve and blood vessels underneath, before pressing the prosthetic against it. Sasuke grunted in a mixture of pain and surprise, but Sakura executed the procedure so quickly the wound didn't even have the chance to bleed.

The artificial arm attached itself seamlessly to Sasuke's flesh, and as he poured his Chakra into it, feeling rushed down its length like a flood of snowmelt, and he felt the arm throb to life. He held up the limb to his face and wiggled his new fingers.

"Perfect!" Sakura chirped. "Although, I think it'll take a while for your nerves fully to connect." She held up her hand, palm outwards, and Sasuke placed the prosthetic against hers. "Feel anything?" She asked.

"No."

"Mmm, well I suppose that's to be expected," she said, pulling her hand away. "Give it a few days. You can put on your shirt now. Come back immediately if your body shows any sign of rejecting the arm."

"How will I know if my body's rejecting it?"

"Trust me, you'll know," she assured him and walked him to the doorway. She leaned against the frame as she bid him farewell. "What're you doing for the rest of the day, going into your clan archives?" She guessed.

"No, tomorrow," he said while staring down at his hand, opening and closing it into a fist.

"Naruto should be finished with his visit to the Academy by late afternoon. You should try and meet up with him for dinner."

"How about you?"

"Ah…well, I have plans with Kiba tonight."

"I see."

They both stood silent, their insides twisting into uncomfortable shapes. When Sasuke finally realized that things weren't going to get any better any time soon, he dipped his head in a slight nod.

"Try and get some rest," he managed before turning around to make his escape. He thought she might have said his name, but instead of slowing down to check, he picked up his pace and disappeared around the corner, leaving Sakura standing alone in the doorframe, quietly staring down the empty corridor.

.

.

.

Sasuke headed straight for the training fields, coming across an unoccupied stretch of dead grass. He shucked off his sweatshirt and tossed it to the ground, the T-shirt beneath a thin defense against the cold. His boots rasped against the dry blades of grass as he slid into the stance for the 54 steps kata. He closed his eyes. For a moment he stood frozen as the sky arced over him in a loud, yell of blue. A passing breeze wandered through his hair, the dark strands swaying like kelp beneath the waves. The world continued to spin on beneath his feet, but still, he did not move.

He inhaled, then exhaled a large cloud of white vapor. His eyes reopened, he came to life, slowly working out the knots and funny shapes that had formed in his chest.

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.

When Sasuke finally returned home, the sun had plummeted below the horizon, taking the temperature down with it, and an annoying stray had found its way back to the front of his apartment. It was blonde and slow-witted, and no matter what Sasuke did, he could never shake the damn thing off.

"Yo!" Naruto greeted cheerfully from where he squatted. "You wanna get dinner?"

Sasuke ignored him and shoved his key into the lock.

Naruto stood up with a frown. "Nice to see your ugly mug, too?"

"I'm not hungry—" Sasuke began, but before he could slip into his apartment and lock the door on him, Naruto slammed it shut and leaned his shoulder heavily against it. He crossed his arms and mirrored Sasuke's scowl.

"Jeez, what's got your panties in a bunch?"

"Move," Sasuke demanded. "Now."

Naruto dropped his gaze towards Sasuke's new arm before lifting it back up to consider him.

"You see, Sakura-chan today?" He guessed.

"I said _move,_ " Sasuke snarled with a viciousness that surprised even him. Instead of apologizing, however, he grabbed his friend by the shoulder and roughly pried him out of the way, twisting the door handle to let himself in. If only it had been that simple. He managed to crack the door open before Naruto once again appeared and barred it shut with his body.

"Nuh- _uh_ , no way, I've been waiting outside your goddamn apartment for almost an hour. You can go be emo some other night. We're going to Ichiraku, we’re going to eat ramen, and you're going pay for it, you jerk."

Sasuke's hand clenched into fist, prepared to give Naruto a black eye for being an annoying _dick_ , but the blonde was faster. His hands wove a blur of seals before he slapped it against the stucco wall. Sasuke recognized the pattern as a summoning jutsu, but by then it was too late. A burst of smoke engulfed the area, and before Sasuke could ask Naruto what the hell he was doing, a frog the size of a small bus appeared before him and swallowed him whole.


	4. Heavy Things

Like most people who disliked other people, Sasuke had a soft spot for animals, and it was this quality that kept him from slicing open an escape route through his warty captor's belly. The giant amphibian eventually regurgitated him on the dirt in a heap of mussed hair and toad spit. Having finally learned what digested earthworms smelled like, Sasuke decided to show Naruto his appreciation by going for his jugular.

Naruto caught Sasuke by the wrist, stopping his friend's kunai inches away from his throat.

"Guessing you didn't appreciate The Gama-chan Express, huh?" He grinned.

Wordlessly, with murder in his eyes, Sasuke unleashed a spinning roundhouse kick at his idiotic head. Naruto blocked it with a raised arm and a laugh, though the blow should have shattered bone with anyone else.

"C'mon, it wasn't that bad," Naruto tried, clearly knowing it was.

"You fed me to a frog!" Sasuke raged.

"It's technically a toad."

Naruto earned himself another punch to the face for that, and this time the blow connected.

"Ow! Jeez! Watch it you ass, okay, okay, so maybe I deserved that one," he said rubbing his jaw. "Look, Sasuke." Naruto hooked a casual arm over his friend's shoulders and guided him towards Ichiraku's light. Sasuke noticed people were staring, some in awe of being in Naruto's demi-god presence, and others because Sasuke had just been spat out by a giant toad. "I know that you know that we both know that if I had just let you back into your apartment you'd do nothing but sit in the dark and stare at the walls like the creepy kid you are."

"I'm leaving."

"Not so fast, creepy one!" He grabbed Sasuke by the shoulders. "Yo, Old Man!"

"Evening, Naruto!" Teuchi greeted his lifetime customer from behind a screen of steam.

"The usual?"

"Yup! Two orders, one for me and one for Sasuke, here."

"Oh! Sasuke-kun, I didn't see you there! You're back!"

Sasuke dipped his head in a polite bow; he still wanted to destroy Naruto, but that didn't mean his manners had to go out the window.

"Look," Naruto said, trying to reason with Sasuke. "It's not like you have anything better to do tonight."

"What, you mean other than stare at the walls in the dark?"

"Exactly! Just pay for my ramen, we can get a few beers later, you can whine about how much your life sucks, and then maybe your life will suck a little less. Besides, nothing can beat a bowl of Ichiraku on a cold night!"

Sasuke had to admit to himself the heat coming off the giant, eternally bubbling pots was a welcome reprieve from the bitter March cold outside. Not to mention the smell was enough to remind him he hadn't eaten anything aside from his tomato all day. Sasuke took a seat at the counter with a scowl, making sure the blonde knew _just_ how much he didn't want to be here.

Naruto plopped into the stool next to his friend and sighed. "Man, this really bites though."

Sasuke ignored him, so Naruto heaved another, louder sigh, this time pointedly in Sasuke's ear.

" _What?"_ Sasuke snapped.

"Hinata's gone," Naruto said plaintively. "She left for a mission last night. She won't be back for a whole month! Can you believe that? What am I going to do for a whole friggin' _month_?"

Before Sasuke had a chance to point out that up until the past few years Naruto probably wouldn't have been able to distinguish Hinata from an umbrella stand, Teuchi set down two bowls before the two young men. "Two miso pork ramen!" He announced from behind the counters.

The steam rose rapidly off the soup. Sasuke suddenly remembered when they had been kids, Kakashi had put them through a particularly grueling survival exercise in the dead of winter. It was a three day ordeal in temperatures so cold the lake at the training ground had frozen over several inches thick. They had all suffered minor frostbites at the end of it, and even Naruto had been subdued into an exhausted silence. Afterwards, Kakashi had dragged his half-dead students to Ichiraku and treated them to all the ramen they wanted as an award for not dying. It was then, while Sasuke sat thawing his frozen hands against a hot bowl of ramen, surrounded by his team and the chatter of customers speaking over the sound of boiling pots that he had felt a rare sense of comfort and joy.

In the present, Sasuke stared down at his bowl, suddenly aware of the years that had passed since that small moment.

"Ittadakimasu!" The blonde bellowed next to him before eagerly tucking in.

A smile ghosted across Sasuke's features. Konoha had changed, and his head was still spinning from all the bright lights and new buildings. The streets were bigger and louder, people seemed to be in more of a rush, and everyone he'd known since he was a kid seemed to be dating one another, but Sasuke was glad to find that, despite all the change, this little ramen stand had managed to withstand the current of time.

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.

.

A few hours later the duo found themselves holed up at a nearby bar. It had taken a great deal of the Naruto's ninja cunning and wiles to convince his friend that going for a round of beer after dinner was a fantastic idea. Well, ninja cunning, wiles, and incessant whining.

In the end, Sasuke had allowed the blonde to steer him down the street from Ichiraku into a nearby izakaya because Naruto's promise of "just _one_ beer, Sasuke" had seemed innocent enough. Also, Sasuke didn't want to admit it, but there really wasn't much to do at home other than sit around and twiddle his thumbs. Besides, between all the wilderness and backwater towns his travels took him through, he didn't remember the last time he had the chance to have a drink. Actually, the more he thought about it, the more enticing the beer became.

Upon entering the bar, they received a raucous welcome, or more accurately, a bunch of drunk people shouted excitedly at Naruto.

"Hey look! Uzumaki Naruto!" Someone cried drunkenly.

"Ubumaki Narudo!" A second voice garbled.

"You're the man!"

"I want to have your babies!" A woman screeched.

Naruto winced at the last one. "Uh, hi!" He smiled sheepishly while simultaneously herding Sasuke towards some booths in the emptier section.

As soon as they slid into their seats, the owner hurried over to their table and plunked down two glasses of beer and bowl of edamame. "On the house!" He said with a grin.

"Oh! Thanks Ossan!" Naruto's face split into a massive grin, and at first, Sasuke thought the whole "Village Hero" thing wasn't too bad of a deal. Then word spread that Uzumaki Naruto, Savior of Konoha and Probable Hokage-to-Be was sitting in the third booth from the back of the bar. From there on out, every ten minutes or so, a random stranger would eagerly come up to greet Naruto, thank him for saving the village, maybe offer their ovaries if they were female, and then set down another glass of beer, either oblivious or uncaring to the fact that the an army of booze had already laid siege across the surface of their table. Naruto, still awkward as ever in the face of acknowledgement despite having chased after it all his life (or maybe because of the fact), could only respond by rubbing the back of his head and laughing nervously as he accepted the drink.

After his twelfth admirer of the night stopped by, they were eight or nine drinks deep, and Sasuke felt his head beginning to spin.

Naruto brought his forehead against the tabletop. "Oh man, I think I'm getting drunk," he told his toes.

Sasuke spied another hopeful slowly creeping up to their table with an inevitable free beer in hand and to warded the fan off with a trademark glare.

"Why don't we call it a night?" Sasuke suggested.

Naruto shifted so his head so his chin was now resting on the tabletop. He blearily looked at Sasuke. "You drunk, old man?"

Sasuke took a sip of his beer. "I think I'm in better shape than you."

"Hey! You know what your problem is?" Naruto slurred lifting his head.

Sasuke didn't know what his problem was, but he doubted Naruto and his eight beers did either.

"Your problem," the blonde continued without waiting for Sasuke to answer, "is that you're just still so _emo_!"

"You were the one crying about your girlfriend leaving just a few hours ago."

"Shut up!" Naruto knocked Sasuke's point away with a swipe of his hand. "At least I had the balls to tell her I liked her. Just look at you, you're so fucking slow, damnit. I showed up at your apartment today and you looked like you were about to put a fucking chidori through your front door!"

"I heard Hinata confessed to you two years before you realized you liked her back, dumbass."

"That's not the problem here!" Naruto banged his fist on the table. "When are you going to tell Sakura-chan?"

"I don't have anything to tell her," Sakura replied mulishly.

Naruto groaned while tearing at his hair. "Of course you do! You like her! You fucking love her!"

"No I don't."

"Yes you do!"

"Let it go, Naruto," Sasuke warned.

"You're such a fucking coward! I don't get you!"

"I said, let. It. Go." Sasuke enunciated every word, making it clear he wasn't going to repeat himself.

Naruto let out a frustrated nose. "Is this about Kiba? I bet this is about Kiba. What else did you expect? You can't just leave her and expect her to wait around! For what it's worth, he asked her out first, and she only said yes because he showed up every day at the hospital with flowers, which is honestly better than your non-existent ass never showing!"

Sasuke lunged across the table and grabbed the blonde by his jacket, knocking glasses over and flooding the table with beer. "I said let it fucking go! Damnit, don't you ever know when to shut up?"

Naruto gave Sasuke a sloppy grin. "Oh, it seems we're finally fucking getting somewhere."

Sasuke threw him back against his seat in disgust. "Shut the fuck up, you're drunk. We're leaving," He said, making an executive decision. He went to stand and the floor shifted beneath his feet, catching him off guard. He swayed in a very un-ninja like way and grabbed the table for support. A low curse slipped out between his lips.

"No. Fuck you," Naruto slurred back and lowered himself sideways onto the booth.

Never in his nineteen years of existence did Sasuke ever think Naruto could get any more insufferable, and yet here he was, bearing witness to the impossible. 'I could just leave him here,' Sasuke thought.

"If you pass out, I'm not dragging your ass back home," Sasuke said, grabbing Naruto roughly by the front of his jacket in an attempt to forcibly extricate him from his seat. "C'mon you."

"Ow! Hey, let go!" Naruto flailed his arms, taking wild swipes at what he approximated to be Sasuke's head and missing superbly. "I'm not going to pass out—ah."

That "ah" was all the warning Sasuke got before Naruto tipped his head forward and threw up, and not even Sasuke's god-like speed was quick enough to save his hand from the hot cascade of vomit.

"Ugh, sorry." Naruto wiped his mouth with his sleeve. "Just give me sec to put my head down…real quick…," he muttered as lowered himself to lay across the booth one more.

Sasuke's usually impassive façade gave way to a turmoil of emotions as he stared in wide-eyed at his desecrated hand; first in horror then disgust, until it finally settled on white-hot rage. His now-red eye slid over to where his friend lay. Judging by the steady rise and fall of his chest, the blonde had fallen asleep.

"You _fucking_ moron," Sasuke cursed.

.

.

.

Under more favorable circumstances, Sasuke would have just called upon one his summons to take Naruto and him home, however, the alcohol was making it difficult for him to properly mold his chakra, and so, damned to the world of lesser mortals, found himself forced to walk like everyone else.

Though "walk" may have been a little too generous of a term for the pace they were setting. With Naruto's arm slung around his shoulders, Sasuke was having a hard time keeping both himself and his barely conscious charge upright. Naruto would manage to take a few wobbly steps every now and then, but for the most part, it was Sasuke half-dragging, half-carrying the blonde while struggling to keep his own footing as the ground swayed beneath them. It was like carrying a six-foot tall sack of potatoes, only heavier and not as smart.

Eventually, Sasuke came across a bench and dumped Naruto onto it before taking a seat next to him. Naruto fell sideways moaning lowly before tumbling off onto the dirt, and Sasuke didn't care enough to pick him back up. He fell against the back of the bench as he tried to catch his breath, the cold air a welcome relief as it washed over his flushed face. His eyelids slid shut on their own, and he told himself he'd rest here for a minute or two before heading off, just until the spinning stopped.

The next think he knew, someone was shaking him awake.

"Sasuke-kun? Sasuke-kun, wake up."

Sasuke cracked open his eyes, furrowing his brows as he tried to focus. It took him a moment to collect his thoughts and a put a name to the face before him. "Sakura?"

"What're you doing out here? And why's Naruto on the ground? What happened?"

"Beer," Sasuke managed to rasp as he struggled to sit up straight. Suddenly, it felt like someone had boxed him straight in the ears and he groaned, his head sagging forward as he tried in vain to stop the spinning. He began to shake uncontrollably.

"I think they're drunk," a second voice said. Sasuke muzzily pegged it as Kiba's. Fucking great.

"What's he doing here?" Sasuke mumbled. Either Sakura didn't hear him, or she didn't want to, but no one answered.

Suddenly something cool and soft broke through the dizziness and pressed against his forehead before it slid down to his his cheek. "His body temperature's low," he heard Sakura say. "How long have you guys been out for?"

"Not sure," Sasuke muttered. He tried to pull her hand away from his face, but ended up grabbing onto it instead as another wave of nausea tossed him about. She squeezed his hand back and reached up to rub his back soothingly; Sasuke couldn't tell if her gesture was actually helping or making things worse.

"Don't worry, we'll get you guys home," she reassured him. She pulled off her scarf and wound it around her old teammate's neck. It didn't stop the shivering, but he felt a little warmer. He burrowed his face deeper into it.

"I can take Naruto back, if you want to take Sasuke," Kiba said.

"What? I mean I can take Naruto, instead, it doesn't matter to me either way."

"What I meant was since Naruto's out, I think it'd be easier for me to take him home. I can call Akamaru to help. It looks like Sasuke's awake enough to at least stand on his feet."

Sakura hesitated. "Okay," she said at length.

If Kiba noticed her look of trepidation, he pretended he didn't and instead went to haul Naruto off the ground. "All right, let's get you home, bud. Holy shit, you friggin _reek._ Oi, how much did you assholes drink tonight?"

A loud snore erupted from the blonde in response. A few moments later, Akamaru loped up to Kiba's side with a happy bark. Kiba slung the blonde across the giant canine's back and hopped on behind his incapacitated bundle.

"All right, Akamaru. To the idiot's lair!"

"Kiba!"

"Huh?"

"...I had a lot of fun tonight. Thanks."

"Glad to hear! I'll stop by the hospital tomorrow, Sakura. Get home safe." And then he took off, leaving Sakura behind to watch him disappear into the night with her arms wrapped tightly around herself.

She stood watching for a long time, waiting for the Inzuka boy disappear down the road. Finally, when the tip of Akamaru's tail was swallowed up by the darkness, she turned and sat next to Sasuke. Pulling his arms across her shoulders, she circled her arm his waist for extra support. "Okay, Sasuke-kun, let's go," she said and tried to rise, but Sasuke didn't budge.

"Sasuke-kun," she began sweetly. "If you can't get up and walk, then I'm going to have to throw you over my shoulder and carry you back."

Her words cut through his inebriation, riling up enough of his pride for him to grunt in pain before he struggled to stand. Sakura rose with him and yelped in surprise as the entirety of his weight suddenly fell against her.

"Sorry," he said hoarsely, but couldn't manage to pull himself away- if he did, there was a good chance he'd fall flat on his face.

"No worries," she said as she steadied herself with the help of her chakra. "I'm a lot stronger than I look. Besides, I've had to do this plenty of times at the hospital with guys who're twice your size."

Fortunately, Sasuke's apartment wasn't too far away, and with the added help of Sakura's monstrous strength, they got through his front door. Sasuke kicked off his shoes at the entry way and took his arm back from Sakura as he stumbled in. His bedroom was too far away, so he fell onto the couch instead. He heard Sakura telling him he shouldn't fall asleep there, but unconsciousness was taking him fast, and he didn't even have the strength to tell her to leave him alone.

A few moments later he felt something soft slip under his head and an incredible amount of warmth envelope his body. He blearily opened an eye to discover a blanket pulled up to his chin, and Sakura's face hovering right over his as she tucked the it in around him.

"There, your body temperature's a bit low, but that should help," she said. "Seriously, you and Naruto are such a handful sometimes."

Sasuke's shivering stopped, and he had to admit the blanket felt _super_ nice right now. Hazily, he realized someone's fingers were threading through his hair. His mother's smile suddenly flashed in his mind-it had been ages since had last thought of her-and something shifted painfully in his chest. Wresting an arm free from beneath the blanket and grabbed her wrist, though not ungently.

"What're you doing here?" He mumbled, his eyelids already sliding shut.

"What?"

Instead of trying to explain what he meant, his hand slid up to wrap around hers, and somehow their fingers inexplicably intertwined. Sakura watched, entranced as he brought them to rest on top of his chest, his grip sure and firm.

"Sasuke-kun?" She tried, but he didn't answer, so she sat by his side, staring at their hands, neither tightening her hold nor pulling away as the clock on the wall behind her ticked loudly by.

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End file.
